Does LaPaglia's 'accent' drive anyone else crazy?

His doesn't bother me but Marianne John-Baptiste's makes me insane! If she ever said, "We need to talk to your daughter about walking to the coffee shop down by by the water", I'd probably have a stroke.

I do not have attention deficit disor...Ooh, look at the bunny!

What accent?

I'm from Manhattan originally, and I have lived in the Midwest for quite a long time; LaPaglia sounds like someone from the area to me, although not someone with the really distinctive Bronx-Brooklyn accent that Jerry Orbach had. He sounds like he could be from upstate, like Buffalo, or from Westchester County, or even from northern PA near the border.

But, for what it's worth, the FBI moves people around. Just because someone is from New York, doesn't mean that after their training is over, that's where they will end up. While it isn't like the military, where soldiers have little say in the matter, and agents certainly can apply for transfers, and wanting to be near family would be a motivation for applying for a transfer to a location, it's normal for FBI agents not to work near the place they grew up. In particular, in the case of New York, the offices of the missing persons division is in Manhattan for a reason, and even someone who applies for a position there to be near family might being applying for the nearest spot to home, but home might still be Long Island, Asbury Park, NJ, or Connecticut.

Poppy Montgomery sounds like she has a rural Midwest accent, to me, and that's actually her character's background. She's from rural Minnesota, or Michigan, or something. People from those areas have speech patterns that sound similar to the way people in the US south speak, but it isn't exactly the same. To people in the Eastern US, it sounds almost exactly the same, and I had to live in Indiana for a while before I learned to appreciate the difference.

I'm really impressed by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, because not only does she sound like she's from New York, she sounds like an educated, middle class black woman from New York. They sound more like white people than they sound like inner city black people, but there's still a detectable difference. I think she must be imitating a specific person. She sounds like some of the teachers I had in junior high school.

Whenever a person has a spot-on accent, I suspect they probably have a specific person they are imitating. I always suspected that of Hugh Laurie in House.

I just started watching Without a Trace on ION when they show it as marathons, back to back. LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery are both Australian. Both pull off good AMERICAN accents. Not sure of the NY accent. Marianne Jean-Baptiste's accent is very noticable. She speaks slow and deliberate to capture the American accent. I first saw her in Secrets and Lies where she was Oscar nominated for best supporing actress. She has a distinct and very British accent. I always wondered why they do not allow certain actors with British and Australian accents to speak in their native tongue. There are many who have become U.S. citizens....esp working for the FBI and CIA.

I was a Public Speech Major and I could tell by a persons "accent" where they were raised and I was certain this man was New York Born AND Bred. I lived in New York for only 9 months in the 1990's and I still speak with an accent . Kudos to Mr LaPaglia. I wouldn't kick him out of my office.

Treat others the way you would like to be treated

I think his American Accent is HOT. :)~

The raspiness is so annoying after a while. That's the only thing that bothers me. I too like a little rasp here and there but not for entire episodes.

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